Many different currencies are used throughout the world for financial transactions. In the United States, the currency is the U.S. Dollar. In Germany, France, Italy, and other countries in Europe, the currency is the Euro. The Jamaican Dollar is the currency of Jamaica. Each currency has different values relative to other currencies and, in some cases, those values float based on global economics and other factors.
Owing to the different values of different currencies relative to one another, currency converters such as financial institutions offer conversion rates (aka exchange rates) to convert one type of currency to another. Conversion rates used by these financial institutions often fluctuate. Furthermore, the conversion rates offered by different financial institutions at a given time can widely vary. The result being that engaging one financial institution over another for converting funds can result in a higher conversion yield and thus more value.
In a typical transaction with a money transfer company the sender is required to pay a standard conversion fee regardless of the different conversion rates being offered by different financial institutions. One of the disadvantages of such a system to the sender is that they are unable to take advantage of potentially lower rates offered by other financial institutions.